On Tuesday, February 17 the aisles of Amoeba Hollywood swelled once more with homemade floats, revelers, and the merry strains of our volunteer brass band as we ushered in our annual Mardi Gras celebration. We kicked things off at 3pm with some tunes from DJ Humble B, followed by a boisterous parade through the store and onto Sunset Blvd., closing the party out with a mix from our own Mr. Ray. Employees and customers alike donned strands of beads and colorful masks for one of the biggest turnouts we’ve had in all the years we’ve been celebrating Fat Tuesday.

Although the event originally started at Amoeba San Francisco in 1998 as a celebration of our employees’ hard work in between the busy holiday and summer seasons, the focus of Amoeba’s Mardi Gras celebrations turned towards outward giving in the years following Hurricane Katrina. A portion of Fat Tuesday’s sales from all three stores and Amoeba.com went to two New Orleans charities benefiting the city’s storied music community: Tipitina’s Foundation and the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic.

Tipitina’s Foundation strives to preserve and advocate for New Orleans’ unique musical heritage, while also aiding the professional development of adult musicians and promoting childhood musical education through their Instruments A Comin’ program, which provides new and refurbished musical instruments to school band programs in the area. Tipitina’s also provides after-school internship opportunities for high school students, in the form of an after-school jazz band, where they receive training in music theory, instrumental performance, recording, and career professionalism.

A portion of the day's in-store and online proceeds will go to New Orleans charities Tipitina’s Foundation and the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic. Tipitina’s Foundation seeks to preserve Louisiana and New Orleans’ musical heritage, while New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic is dedicated to providing affordable healthcare to New Orleans musicians. New Orleans continues to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, one of the costliest and deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history, and at Amoeba we're dedicated to continuing to do our part to help, including raising $1,000 for the New Orleans organizations at our recent charity auction Feb. 7.

Fat Tuesday in Christian tradition takes place the day before Ash Wednesday, when you’re supposed to feast and drink and be merry before the penintential season of Lent, leading up to Easter Sunday. Since then it’s also become a global celebration from Brazil to Senegal, full of costumes, festivities, parades and general decadence. Read about the Mardi Gras Indians here at the Amoeblog.

On Saturday, February 7 we had our first charity auction of 2015 at Amoeba Hollywood! We are right around the corner from our annual Mardi Gras festivities and parade, so it was apropro that the auction benefited two amazing New Orleans charities, Tipitina's Foundation and New Orleans Musicians' Clinic. Our guest host was the hilarious writer/performer Kristina Wong, who seemed to have a blast at her first appearance on our auction stage. The East Bay Express has described Kristina as "brutal but hilarious… a woman who takes life’s absurdities very seriously" and she really brought it with the zingers and one-liners! She was relentless at driving up the bids and she definitely helped raise a lot of money for New Orleans.

We have a long history with both of the recipient's of this month's auction. Tipitina's Foundation provides instruments to youth in New Orleans through their Instruments A Comin' program. The program is now in its thirteenth year and has placed more than $3 million dollars worth of musical instruments in over 95 Louisiana school music programs. And it's just one of the things Tipitina's does to help preserve and further Louisiana's music and culture.

On Fat Tuesday, Amoeba San Francisco let the good times roll with our Mardi Gras DJ extravaganza! We had an eclectic melange of music with our own DJ Kelly-O and DJ DJ (also of Afrofunk Experience), plus a special appearance from DJ Shona's Dad (KPFA Programmer Joel Sachs) who played non-stop New Orleans party classics!

Amoeba employees enjoyed some authentic Louisiana cooking with Jambalaya from the Outer Sunset's Cajun Pacific and traditional King Cake too.

We urge you to recreate the fun at home with some of these amazing New Orleans recordings as your soundtrack. But we're not sharing that Jambalaya recipe!

Amoeba Hollywood was the place to be on a rainy Los Angeles afternoon in March. Our pal, Brently Heilbron, made for the most hilarious stream-of-pop-consciousness hour ever! And it was all for a cause that has special meaning to us as we were raising money for two New Orleans charities.

Our March charity auction benefitted the ongoing work still needed in New Orleans via two amazing organizations, Tipitina's Foundation and the New Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation (NOMAF). Their services grew even more vital out of the damage done during Hurricane Katrina and they both continue to do great work with and for the musicians in New Orleans. The rich musical and cultural heritage of New Orleans is a unique part of the core of American music--from Jazz to Rock and Roll; from Country to Hip-Hop. We encourage you to learn more about what they do and the musicians they've helped.

Mr. Heilbron, the original host (and originator) of our charity auctions, made a triumphant return appearance at our auction on Saturday, March 1, sending the rain-drenched onlookers into peels of laughter with his random delightful musings. Musings about such things as the political and social impact of the greatest movie of all time (Goonies) and the bestband of all time (Spin Doctors) and everything in between. His encyclopedic knowledge of music and pop culture made for grins and giggles as he regaled the crowd and hyped up a slew of wonderful items. The crowd ate it up!